Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Belarusian First Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Mikhnevich held a telephone talk over this issue on Tuesday.

The talk also focused on Russian-Belarusian relations, including the expansion of the legal base, the ministry says.

“The situation in Ukraine was in the focus of the talk: both parties noted that the punitive operation in the southeast hampers the political resolution of the crisis and heightens the humanitarian catastrophe,” the ministry says.